士师记 21:23

Chinese NCV (Simplified)

於是便雅憫人照樣行了：按著他們的數目，從跳舞的女子中強搶她們作妻子，然後離開那裡，回到自己的地業去，重建城市，住在其中。

Parallel Translations

Chinese Union (Simplified)
於 是 便 雅 悯 人 照 样 而 行 ， 按 着 他 们 的 数 目 从 跳 舞 的 女 子 中 抢 去 为 妻 ， 就 回 自 己 的 地 业 去 ， 又 重 修 城 邑 居 住 。

Contextual Overview

¹⁶ The elders of the Israelites said, "The women of Benjamin have been killed. Where can we get wives for the men of Benjamin who are still alive? ¹⁷ These men must have children to continue their families so a tribe in Israel will not die out. ¹⁸ But we cannot allow our daughters to marry them, because we swore, ‘Anyone who gives a wife to a man of Benjamin is cursed.' ¹⁹ We have an idea! There is a yearly festival of the Lord at Shiloh, which is north of the city of Bethel, east of the road that goes from Bethel to Shechem, and south of the city of Lebonah." ²⁰ So the elders told the men of Benjamin, "Go and hide in the vineyards. ²¹ Watch for the young women from Shiloh to come out to join the dancing. Then run out from the vineyards and take one of the young Shiloh women and return to the land of Benjamin. ²² If their fathers or brothers come to us and complain, we will say: ‘Be kind to the men of Benjamin. We did not get wives for Benjamin during the war, and you did not give the women to the men from Benjamin. So you are not guilty.'" ²³ So that is what the Benjaminites did. While the young women were dancing, each man caught one of them, took her away, and married her. Then they went back to the land God had given them and rebuilt their cities and lived there. ²⁴ Then the Israelites went home to their own tribes and family groups, to their own land that God had given them. ²⁵ In those days Israel did not have a king. All the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

and they went: It appears that the Benjamites acted in the most honourable way to the women they had thus violently carried off, and we may rest assured, that they took them to an inheritance more than equal to their own. But this transaction, as well as the indiscriminate massacre of the people of Jabesh-gilead, as Dr. Gray observes, was certainly stamped with injustice and cruelty; and must be condemned on those principles which the Scriptures elsewhere furnish.

repaired: Judges 20:48

Cross-References

Genesis 20:14
Then Abimelech gave Abraham some sheep, cattle, and male and female slaves. He also gave Sarah, Abraham's wife, back to him

Genesis 21:21
He lived in the Desert of Paran, and his mother found a wife for him in Egypt.

Genesis 21:22
Then Abimelech came with Phicol, the commander of his army, and said to Abraham, "God is with you in everything you do.

Genesis 21:23
So make a promise to me here before God that you will be fair with me and my children and my descendants. Be kind to me and to this land where you have lived as a stranger—as kind as I have been to you."

Genesis 24:3
Make a promise to me before the Lord , the God of heaven and earth. Don't get a wife for my son from the Canaanite girls who live around here.

Genesis 26:28
They answered, "Now we know that the Lord is with you. Let us swear an oath to each other. Let us make an agreement with you

Genesis 31:44
Let us make an agreement, and let us set up a pile of stones to remind us of it."

Genesis 31:53
Let the God of Abraham, who is the God of Nahor and the God of their ancestors, punish either of us if we break this agreement." So Jacob made a promise in the name of the God whom his father Isaac worshiped.

Deuteronomy 6:13
Respect the Lord your God. You must worship him and make your promises only in his name.

Joshua 2:12
So now, promise me before the Lord that you will show kindness to my family just as I showed kindness to you. Give me some proof that you will do this.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the children of Benjamin did so,.... Went and laid wait in the vineyards, and when the daughters of Shiloh came out to dance, they rushed upon them:

and took them wives according to their number; two hundred of them, each man a wife, and no more; for though polygamy was in use in those times, and if at any time necessary, and could be excused, it might seem now; yet it was not indulged to, neither by the elders, nor by the children of Benjamin:

of them that danced whom they caught; the rape of the Sabine virgins by Romulus, at the arena plays and shows, mentioned by various authors h, and the carrying off of fifteen Spartan virgins from the dances by Aristomenes the Messenian i, are sometimes observed as parallel cases to this, and justified by it, particularly that of Romulus k:

and they went and returned unto their inheritance; the six hundred Benjaminites, with their wives, returned to their own tribe, which was their inheritance by lot; and these, being the only survivors, had a right to the whole:

and repaired the cities, and dwelt in them: in process of time they rebuilt the cities the Israelites had burnt in the late war, and repeopled them as their posterity increased. And the Jewish writers say, that in later times they were allowed to marry with other tribes as before, since the oath only bound those present at Mizpeh; for they observe, that it ran only,

there shall not any of us, c. not any of our sons they might give wives to Benjamin, and so in time they became numerous again.

h Liv. Hist. l. 1. p. 7, 8. Flor Hist. Rom. l. 1. c. 1. Aurel. Victor. de Vir Illustr. c. 2. Valer. Maxim. l. 1. c. 4. i Hierop adv. Jovinian. l. 1. fol. 17. B, C. k Vid. Albericum Gentil. de armis Roman l. 2. p. 114.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Compare the very similar account of the rape of the Sabine women by the Romero youths at the festival of the Consualia, as related by Livy.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Judges 21:23. They went and returned unto their inheritance — It appears that the Benjamites acted in the most honourable way by the women whom they had thus violently carried off; and we may rest assured they took them to an inheritance at least equal to their own, for it does not appear that any part of the lands of the Benjamites was alienated from them, and the six hundred men in question shared, for the present, the inheritance of many thousands.